The Pawsitively Pets Blog

Wednesday, 18 September 2013

Yesterday, Pawsitively Pets received a lovely, surprise email from Etta Cohen, the fantastic lady at the heart of the Women in Business Awards that runs each year.Last year I entered the Women in Business Awards in an aim to boost my confidence – I never expected to get through, but in order to enter I had to write why I felt I could win the award which forced me to point out all my successes and my personal attributes that make me a ‘successful business woman’. I was shocked when I was short listed and came second for Young Businesswoman of the Year! The award ceremony was very fancy, a lot of very important looking people who looked very comfortable in a suit and I was pretty sure they didn't usually dress in leggings and wellies for work as I do! It was a fantastic day and a great experience, and I was quite happy to leave it at that, having had a great day out. So when Etta’s ‘people’ wrote to me this year to ask me to re-enter the awards, I was quite unsure. I felt like it was something I had done and had to leave alone now but friends encouraged me to go for it. The email I received yesterday was a congratulatory email informing me that I had been short listed again! This time for ‘Home Based Businesswoman of the Year’ and inviting me to attend the award ceremony in Leeds again this November. So, how is that I can be shortlisted for an award when I run a business that pays very little money, most people haven’t heard of me or my business and I’m nowhere near as ‘successful’ as those I end up mingling with at these events? Whilst I do work at making the business bigger and able to pay more, I don’t measure my success solely in what money my company makes, or in how many people have heard of me. I am a disabled woman who, having tried to work in ‘normal’ roles as an employee, decided to start her own business. I realised that with far too many sick days and struggling to manage even a few hours, let alone a full day, working for someone else was never going to work. My success is measured by the fact that, despite often being ill, and despite several difficulties encountered, including starting up in the middle of a recession, my business is still running after five years and I am still working instead of having to give up work due to my illness. Okay, so it doesn't pay well, my accounts aren't always up to date because by the time I've done deliveries/training sessions, I’m often too tired to do paperwork, but I’m still going and what’s more, when I contemplated entering the awards, so many people encouraged me to do so – they believed in me, and the recommendations that customers wrote for me to send in were pretty amazing! Remember – success isn't about what you have or what money you make, it's about jumping hurdles, doing your best and being proud of who you are. Embrace it!Lottie, Pawsitively Pets

Wednesday, 29 May 2013

I thought it was about time I got back to blogging and as my last blog post on the last blog was 2011 I thought it'd be a good idea to have a fresh start with a new blog!

A lot has changed since I last posted and anyone who follows Pawsitively Pets on Twitter or Facebook will know some of what's been happening anyway but I guess the biggest difference is that my little family (the Pawsitively Pets Gang) has grown quite spectacularly!

I now share my life and my little home with four dogs, two cats and the stinkies (currently counting three rats and a mouse).

So I guess I should introduce them all!
Firstly, there is Takara the damnation (I mean, dalmatian - of course) , who everyone knows already - she will be eight years old in July, how time flies! She's still as much of a pain in the bum as ever, but I do love the neurotic little madam.
Bubble the dalmatian has grown up, too - she'll be four in September and is an absolute dream and a pleasure. She is so laid back, very well behaved for the most part, and her deafness doesn't hold her back at all.
Just over a year ago, I adopted little Timmi from Rain Rescue. Timmi was a biter and he came home with me to try and mend his ways. He became a lovely little dog, but was rehomed and returned twice. Eventually, I decided that I couldn't bear for him to be returned again and he was well settled with the girls and I, so he stayed. Timmi is a little black and white terrier cross (we think a patterdale terrier x whippet) and he's just coming upto two years old now.
Finally, at Christmas, I was asked to go and assess a dalmatian in kennels who had been given up for aggression. Dalmatian Welfare, who operate remotely so hadn't seen him, had a home lined up but couldn't send him there until they had had an assessment of him. I went and collected a very skinny, very stressed lanky big dog from kennels and was warned that he was boisterous and territorial and was 'funny' with strangers until he got to know them. Hair was coming off him in clumps and he was panting so hard, you'd believe he'd run a marathon on a hot, summer's day. I took the stressed boy out in the car and took him to see my mum at her flat to see how he got on in a home environment (I wasn't keen to take him home as I wasn't sure how he was with other dogs and he was so stressed I wanted him to calm down a bit first). Having greeted my mum and her partner in a very polite, friendly way, he settled down to chew on a bone and was not a problem at all.
Having done a thorough assessment of him, I reported back to welfare that he could go to his new home but that he was stressed and could've been too overwhelmed to show any reaction to the things I tested him with, but that in general he seemed to be a nice dog. I also said I would keep him at home until transport had been worked out to save him getting himself in a state in kennels. Whoops! There was the fatal mistake! His home fell through and after three weeks of advertising him, my mum and I agreed to share him if he lived with me. My mum had fallen for him the moment she met him as he reminded her a lot of Eddy who died in 2010, and he now lives very happily with Takara, Bubble and Timmi - oh and me!

I also took on two rescue cats in December, Sophie - a tortie x tabby and Minnie, a black moggy who I named Minnie as she was so skinny. She's now looking decidedly chunky and she may need to be renamed Monkey!
With the rodents (Mavis, Maisie and Molly, the rats and Lemmewinks the mouse) you can imagine, I am always kept busy with never a dull moment!